Archive for the year 2009
On Bielsko-Biała and Białystok Posted by Anna on Oct 6, 2009
Polish declensions. We all love them, right? All the funky case endings, exceptions, and then exceptions to exceptions. Life in Polish is never boring. But just when you think you’ve finally managed to master the genitives, datives and accusatives, and you’re no longer kept awake at night by the adjective+noun combinations, you meet Bielsko-Biała. Or…
How to Write Dates (po polsku, naturally) Posted by Anna on Oct 3, 2009
I was writing a semi-official letter the other day, and even before I managed to get to “Szanowna Pani“, I was already stumped. Not that it’s anything usual, me getting stumped, but it’s been happening with amazing regularity lately. Anyway, my MS Word automatically fills in the current date according to the American system: the…
Barb’s Trip to Poland and Chipmunk Diplomacy Posted by Anna on Sep 30, 2009
Today we have another report from our fabulous guest blogger – Barb from Canada. Enjoy! I recently returned from a short trip to Poland with my head (and heart) bursting with impressions and perceptions. Since my last trip occurred over 25 years ago, to say things have changed would be a little bit of an…
September Picture Post – Photos of Poland Posted by Anna on Sep 27, 2009
Hi guys! After all these very serious discussions this month (because what to give a foreign mother in law who’s a snob and has everything is a serious discussion indeed) we deserved a more relaxing subject. And I realized that we haven’t had a proper picture post in a very long while. Shame on me…
On News and Ice Tea Posted by Anna on Sep 24, 2009
Just the other day I was asked what (if any) Polish equivalents of these words would be, and frankly, I didn’t have a clue. All the Poles I know refer to ice tea as “ice tea” and news is “news”, or sometimes “nius”. I checked with a couple of dictionaries, and asked a couple of…
Reader’s Question About Polish Surnames Posted by Anna on Sep 21, 2009
A while back Sue Wilson left this comment, but due to my computer troubles (which, thankfully, are over now as I’m a proud owner of a brand new MacBook) I only managed to see it last weekend. I’m sorry Sue! I thought that Sue’s question was interesting, and actually, because she is not the only…
Polish Gifts – polskie prezenty, part 2 Posted by Anna on Sep 17, 2009
I would like to thank you all for your gift suggestions. They were all great. And it made me realize that the people I’m stuck buying gifts for are spoiled, ungrateful brats. I tried the wycinanki once, beautifully framed and simply gorgeous and they were met with a “what the heck is this garbage” type…